1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lid open-close apparatus for opening, closing, and locking, for example, a glove box of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
A glove box is mounted on, for example, a front passenger seat side of an automobile instrument panel. This glove box is openably mounted in a concave portion provided in the instrument panel. The glove box has a locking piece, which engages with the inner periphery of the concave portion when closing the glove box, and an operating element for disengaging the locking piece therefrom by drawing back the locking piece. Various mechanisms for implementing the locking piece and the operating element have been known. The operating element is usually mounted on the face side of the glove box.
However, because the operating element is mounted on the face side of the glove box, for instance, when a driver wishes to open the glove box, he should operate the operating element by largely moving his body toward the front passenger seat side. Consequently, there has been a problem that during stopped at a tollbooth or the like, the glove box cannot quickly and readily be opened.
Thus, in the following JP-A-5-338500, there has been proposed a lock apparatus adapted so that an opener for unlatching a latch mechanism, which locks the glove box, through a remote control cable by pushing a pushbutton is disposed at a place located away from a position, at the glove box is disposed, toward the center of the instrument panel.
However, because the latch mechanism for locking the glove box is unlatched through a remote control cable by pushing a pushbutton, the lock apparatus has problems that the configuration thereof is complex, that the number of components is large, that the assembling thereof is time-consuming, and that the manufacturing cost thereof is high.